In Loving Memory - Windows Server 2003

April 24, 2003 – July 14, 2015

Windows Server 2003 (12) of Redmond, WA left us peacefully on July 14, 2015. As you may recall, Windows Server 2003 greeted the world on April 24, 2003. It created a lot of excitement for then IT professionals, replacing previous server versions – and adding support for 64-bit systems. Windows Server 2003 also brought up a whole generation of Windows System Administrators in a post-dotcom era. Windows Server 2003 was the main workhorse on numerous servers in both small and big data centers. Not without its drawbacks, it served millions of users reliably and faithfully. Windows Server 2003 is survived by Windows Server 2008/R2, Windows Server 2012/R2 and Windows Azure. Windows Server 2003 will continue to be in our memory for all the long nights of server rollouts and configuration bashes, Active Directory and DNS configurations, and re-configurations.

IT professionals everywhere will be holding migration services, and can follow these simple steps to ensure smooth and easy transition from Windows Server 2003:

1. Preserve the memories by backing up the entire Windows Server 2003 server using Acronis Backup Advanced
2. Convert the backup to Virtual Machine for future reference
3. Provision the new Windows OS using Acronis Snap Deploy
4. Migrate the data according to Application Vendor guidelines

For more information and details on how safely migrate from Windows Server 2003, check out the Migration Best Practices and Tips.